The former mayor of a Massachusetts industrial town says ex-Gov. Mitt Romney cut crucial job retraining funds and never lived up to the economic promises he made while campaigning.

President Barack Obama's campaign dispatched John Barrett - who was mayor of North Adams, Mass. from 1984-2010 - and Michigan Congressman Sandy Levin to talk to Michigan reporters on Monday.

Barrett assailed Romney's economic record, saying the state's growth trailed the national average every year he was in office. His economic plan led to "lower job creation, more debt and bigger government," Barrett said.

It is no secret that the Obama campaign has been pointing out that Massachusetts ranked 47th in job growth during his term.

Barrett went a step further and implied that Romney just did not care about the loss of manufacturing jobs. He said Romney never visited his city, which he said was the poorest community in the state and struggling with reinventing itself to be less reliant on manufacturing.

"He didn't recognize we had to retrain the workforce for those new jobs," he said.

In response to a question about how much a governor can really do about the economy, Levin pointed to former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, saying she was committed to job retraining and worked to ensure the state will get the bulk of federal dollars to develop electric car batteries.

Levin also renewed Democrats' criticism of Romney opposing the bailout (backed by Obama) that is credited with rescuing the auto industry.

"One, maybe two, of the domestic (car) companies would no longer be here and many, many of the suppliers would be gone. It would have been a disaster," Levin said.

"It's the difference between hands-off Romney and hands-on Obama," he said.